Stamping and Stuff

Thursday, September 29, 2011

This is the herb garden I inherited with the house. On the far left is basil. On the far right is sage. To the right of the sage are chives. My question is... what is between the chives and the basil (taller with 'flowers' on top). Are they scallions (green onions)?

Monday, September 26, 2011

Can you stand another Pinterest-inspired post? When I saw this idea, I knew I had everything I needed to recreate it myself (courtesy of a 50lb bag of popcorn and a 25lb bag of red-beans from Sams, and canning jars by the dozen from yardsales!). I am hosting my gardening group on Saturday, so the plan is to have these burning on the deck table to keep away the bugs. Best of all, when the season is over, I can put the lids on and keep them for next year.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

I've recently discovered Pinterest. It's a dangerous time-eater. But oh, is it fun and inspiring! When my friend Anita back in IL pinned this idea, I knew I wanted to copy it. Trouble is, we don't have many big trees here so I didn't know what I'd do for branches. I decided to check the compost pile, where most of our clean-up from hurricane Irene ended up. Imagine my delight when I found the perfect branches from our Crepe Myrtle trees!

The girls and I punched some of my scrap paper, and we love the result. They couldn't wait to fill up the circles! After Thanksgiving, I'll use Christmas Themed papers and we can start all over. Then I'll do the same with floral/pink/yellow/blues for spring... and red, white, and blue for summer!

Incidentally, the card I made in my previous post? That was meant for the very same Anita. Unfortunately, she didn't receive it. I am thinking someone from the Post Office thought I was mailing her gift cards and decided to keep them for themselves. They weren't, they were just 'coupons' for Yankee Candle. But it ticks me off, anyway. I worked hard on that card, and I wanted Anita to have it. Boo.

Thursday, September 08, 2011

Since I last posted, we moved from Illinois to Virginia, which was a 2.5 month process. As I write, most of the boxes are empty, but there is stuff everywhere (we have no basement here!) My craft room is a complete mess (even MORE so than usual). The day that we got internet hooked up in the new house, I found out that The Angel Company was hanging up its wings. I was sad. I've been an Angel for almost 7 years!

Being a natural optimist, I decided to look on the bright side... there are so many great stamp companies out there that I am now no longer limited (yeah, I know I could use others, and I did, but I always tried to spend my stamping money with TAC). One of the designers for TAC, Mabelle R.O., has an etsy shop where you can purchase some of her other cute images. She just announced that she'll be selling rubber stamps, as well!

Yesterday, I got some fall-themed Yankee Candle coupons in the mail and knew I needed to send them to a friend back in IL. I knew that Mabelle's cute pumpkin stamp would be perfect, and in a matter of minutes I threw together this, my first card in many many weeks. It felt good to be creating again. The sentiment is the second verse of "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and I added it in with Word (one of the things I like about digital images.) I colored it with my Copics and added some ribbon from my ridiculously large stash.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

The movers will be here Wednesday. All of our stuff is going into storage, as we will be spending the summer living in hotels (and visiting family) until we can find and close on our first house! I have been busy preparing projects to keep me busy for the next few months... trying to get everything pre-cut and pre-stamped so I don't have to take a ton of stuff with me. I'll be finishing up Christmas Cards, trying some new sketches, and coloring a ton of images with my Copics that I can make into cards once we get settled.

The new catalogue from The Angel Company should be out sometime the end of June, so I'm getting excited about that. Last September, when I went to see Beth Moore, I felt really convicted that I needed to be using my cards to encourage others. I found it very interesting that Mischelle Smith, the founder of TAC, has also spoken of moving the company in that direction. As such, I can't wait to see the new sets. The "Final Farewell" list is extensive and they are all on sale. You can see them HERE if you're in the market for some real bargains.

And, just to pique your curiosity, I'll have a surprise to post on Monday!

Friday, May 06, 2011

... for the first time in months! I've been crazy busy with all that an upcoming move entails. As excited as I am to get back to the east coast, this is going to be the hardest move so far. I'm leaving behind some wonderful friends who I will miss dearly. Several of them belong to my bookclub, so when I saw this set from My Favorite Things, I knew I had to have it! The paper was actually a steal from the new "Tuesday Morning" store that opened here... $1.99 for a pack of 25 and it's double-sided!

I do have a lot of projects to take with me to a 10-hour crafting day I'm going to tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have more to show you soon, including the monogrammed teacher gift sets that I'm making with the $1 Just Right set I found at the first yard sale of the season! :-)